Annabelle Doll

This is Annabelle. She's a good sort. 

She waited for the train with me. We were having issues with trains that day.

Annabelle has a belly button and is cute as a button too.

This pattern is worked on the round

Tips

Working in the round goes up in spirals. So your beginning point of each round will actually move around the body. E.g. if it starts on the hips on round 8 by round 12 it will be on the back. 

I have a couple examples at the bottom of the page if you need help doing either the popcorn stitch or sc2tog

HEAD

1	Ch 2, 5 sc in 2nd ch from hook (5)
2	[2 sc in same sc] repeat around (10)
3	[2 sc in same sc, 2 sc] repeat around (15)
4	[2 sc in same sc, 3 sc] repeat around (20)
5	[2 sc in same sc, 4 sc] repeat around (25)
6-11	25 sc (25) at this step you can just sc until you get to a count of 150 and then you have done all rows required.
12	[sc2tog, 4 sc] repeat around (20)
13	[sc2tog, 3 sc] repeat around (15)
14	[sc2tog, 2 sc] repeat around (10) Add stuffing here, stuff tightly
15	[sc2tog] repeat around (5) fasten off and leave a long tail to use to sew the head on the body later.

ARMS (x2)

1	Ch 2, 5 sc in 2nd ch (5)
2	[2 sc in same sc] repeat around (10)
3	10 sc
4	Sc2tog, 8 sc (9)
5	Sc2tog, 7 sc (8)
6-17	8 sc (8) at this step you can just sc until you get to a count of 80 and then you know you have completed all rows required. Fasten off

LEGS (x2)

1	Ch 2, 5 sc in 2nd ch (5)
2	[2 sc in same sc] repeat around (10)
3	[2 sc in same sc, 2 sc] repeat around (15)
4,5	15 sc (15)
6	2 sc2tog,  11 sc (13)
7	2 sc2tog, 9 sc (11)
8-18	11 sc (11) at this step you can just sc until you get to a count of 110 and then you know you have completed all rows required. Fasten off first leg, second leg go straight into body part of pattern

BODY

1	7 sc, join with sc in 2nd sc 10 sc, sc in same sc as the join, sc in 7th sc (same as join), 4 sc
2-4	23 sc (23)
5	10 sc, popcorn stitch, 12 sc (22)
6-10	22 sc (22), at this step you can just sc until you get to a count of 110 and then you know you have completed all rows required.
11	6 sc, 7th sc is a join 14th is a join in the same sc as the first join, 10 sc, join with sc, 7 sc, sc in same stitch as first join, 4 sc (36)
12	36 sc (36)
13	8 sc, sc2tog, sc2tog, 14 sc, sc2tog, sc2tog, 6 sc (32)
14	6, 3 sc2tog, 10 sc, 3 sc2tog, 4 sc (26)
15	13 sc2tog (13)
16	7 sc2tog, this technically goes into a new round, but whatever.
	Sew on head.

POPCORN STITCH

 2 dc in same sc,

remove hook from loop put hook through last sc,

pull loop through

SC2TOG (single crochet two together) 

Pull loop through like a regular sc (2 looks on hook)

Pull another loop through the next sc (3 loops on hook)

Loop over and pull through all 3 loops on hook 

Bead Math

I had to go shopping tonight for my sister-in-law's birthday present. Shannon was tired and didn't want to meet me so I had hours all by myself. Poor me.

So during my searching I found this:

No, it's not for Desiree. I got her something else and I am not telling in case she reads my blog.

The beads are mine but the chain is new. It is a cute little silver chain that you can string your own beads on. I thought that it was an excellent idea and easy way to change your jewelry. Just change the beads and you have a whole different look. Add a bead, take away a bead, multiply them...

I am especially excited because years ago I got a bead that my mom made and I have always loved it, mostly because my mom made it and then let me have it and now I can wear it.

Spring Shrug

Sorry for the not so great photos but my husband has an old lady's hobby (like I don't) and was at an orchid society meeting and wasn't home to help.

This is just a rectangle with the ends sewn together to make sleeves. Hopefully, you can see the back a bit in the mirror to get the idea of it. It looks pretty cute over a singlet top as well, it's just too cold here to pose for those pictures tonight.

This is a very adaptable pattern. You can change the length of the sleeves to whatever amount of yarn you have. The reason my sleeves are their length is because I only had 2 skeins of this:

Chain in multiples of 4 to desired length. In this case I did a chain of 52. Basically, here you just have to chain until it is long enough to wrap around your upper arm.

Dc in 5th chain from hook

[Chain 3, skip 3, dc in next chain] repeat to end of chain

chain 4 turn [dc in chain of 3, chain 3] repeat to end, chain 4 turn...

easy peasy.

Now depending on how long you make your rectangle is how long you need to sew up the sleeves. This is all I had to sew up the ends on my short sleeves.

The other thing with this is, if you don't want to wear it as a shrug you can still just wrap it around for a scarf. 

Giant Snowflake

I did this a small while back. You wouldn't believe how much energy it can take to get up off my butt and take a simple photograph so that I can then post it. It takes so much energy that I was only able to muster enough tonight because I didn't have to walk home from work.

One of my co-workers takes the same train as me and we share a trip when we share a shift. Tonight she got off at my stop to meet her partner and they both insisted that I take a ride from them.

I had to laugh when he told me, "you are in Australia now, this isn't America." Yes, because America is known for being such a safe place to be.

Anyway back to my project.

Giant Snowflake

The above link is the pattern that I followed. This is why I love the internet, free patterns and help for when I get in trouble.

On row 12 of this pattern I could not figure out what it was talking about. I tried and I unravelled, again and again. Then I saw that people had left comments about similar problems and triumphs. I was actually able to email a nice lady who helped me over this hump. Just because she was nice, she helped me, a stranger, because the internet is a wonderful place.

I love the pictures of this pattern but mine actually turned out a bit small. I think one day I might try it again with a bigger needle. Anyone want a smallish giant snowflake?

White Trash

Over here in the land of Oz they have a peculiar custom. Every now and then the council sends a suburb a notice saying that the home dwellers can put all there large trash on the curb and the council will come clean it up. People are allowed to put out the trash somewhere around 1 to 2 weeks before council comes to pick it up.

Why I say this is peculiar is that for a short time it transforms nice looking suburbs into more of a trash heap. However, many people go around armed with trucks and trailers scouring the trash on the curb to find 'another man's treasure'.

It just so happened that we were driving through one of these areas and I spied what looked like a nice chair. Shannon flipped around and we went looking for it. When I got up close it was a nice chair except for the fact that one leg had come off but nice considerate previous owners had left the leg with it. So we packed it home and in about a half hour flat Shannon and I had the legs all screwed on and sturdy. God bless the hopeless handy man.

Really the only problem with this chair is that it is white and I have toddlers. During the fixing I found an Ikea sticker so I thought that I could buy a new non-white cover for it. Come to find out that this chair retails for $420 and the covers are around $160. Since it is a free chair to me I didn't want to invest in a cover and I wasn't very fond of any of their other covers. So we decided to go with option number 2.

See the pretty colors that make grey?

Oh no! What have we done?

Oh good, it gets darker.

It does have some inconsistencies in the shades of grey. You can see a bit along the bottom, how the arm on the right side of the picture isn't the same shade as the front and other arm. Overall, it is better than white and we might try again later. 

Shamira's Quilt

I have a niece who is legally blind and also just turned 6. I made this quilt for her. The idea behind it was that she could have lots of things that she could touch, with many different textures. It has flannel, cotton,  ribbon, buttons, minky, quilting, and satin. 

This is a quilt that could have gotten quite addicting into making all sorts of different touches. I decided for my sanity and timeframe to keep it simple. 

I started with the flannel backing as inspiration for the whole project. 

Not only is it just so cute it is also so very soft. Basically, it set my colors and helped limit me to flowers. 

These buttons look tricky but they are actually pretty simple. The tip is fabric glue and pointy ended tweezers. Once the glue dries you can sew them down. Sewing them down is important because the glue isn't a certainty and with kids you want certainty for choking objects. Plus buttons without the typical thread cross just don't look right.

They feel a lot of fun.

Trapunto quilting. A bit hard to see in this picture but if you don't know trapunto is just sewing 2 parallel close set lines on two pieces of fabric sandwiched together. You then get a large blunt needle with yarn and sew the yarn between the two sewn lines and the sandwiched fabric. The yard creates the texture of whatever you have sewn. Subtle fun. 

Looped ribbon segments. 'Nough said.

This is just a yo-yo out of satin with a great big button holding it down. 

Cables

I love this hat. I made this hat. I am proud of this hat.

Let me explain something. I love to crochet. I don't like the look of crochet. I hate to knit. I love the look of  knit.

This has always plagued me. I have spent sleepless afternoons debating over my new skein of yarn, 'to knit or to crochet?' No longer do I have to agonize over this issue. I feel freed. I feel alive again. I feel like I should alert the news stations.

Tonight however, you are my only audience and I must share with you.

If you crochet this is an invaluable website with links to hundreds of free patterns, including my very own pattern of the scarf I made. I feel famous.

Free Crochet Patterns

And this is the link to the incredible woman's website who opened my eyes to the possibilities open to me now I know how to crochet cables.

Cable Hat

Train Drawing 2